Thad Cochran, a six-term Senator with a shock of white hair, is the spitting image of the Republican establishment. A seasoned appropriator from deep red Mississippi, Cochran is the kind of legislator who in a different era would have treated his perch as a lifetime appointment. So it was telling that many Republicans greeted his Dec. 6 announcement that he will stand for re-election next year with surprise.

Cochran, 76, raised just $53,000 in the third quarter, and he blew past a self-imposed deadline to announce whether he would run again. More important, he was facing a primary fight against a Tea Party upstart financed by a passel of hard-charging national conservative groups.

But Cochran plunged in, promising to “run hard and be successful.” And now the GOP primary in Mississippi has become the latest in a slate of Senate contests in 2014 that will test whether gold-plated members of the Republican establishment can fend off challenges from activists intent on ushering a new crop of combative conservatives into a chamber better known for comity.

The push to depose the GOP’s old guard is taking place across the South and the Great Plains, in the strongholds of the party. In Kentucky, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is facing a challenge from conservative businessman Matt Bevin. South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee also face primary fights next year, while in Georgia at least eight Republicans are vying for the seat being vacated by the retirement of GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss. In Kansas, a Tea Party–backed radiologist named Milton Wolf is challenging Senator Pat Roberts. Up in Wyoming, conservative stalwart Mike Enzi is embroiled in a nasty fight with Liz Cheney.

Cochran’s opponent, a Mississippi state senator named Chris McDaniel, boasts the backing of a trio of national conservative groups: the Club for Growth, the Senate Conservatives Fund and the Madison Project. These organizations are ready to pour cash across the electoral landscape in an effort to retire Republican incumbents and usher in a cadre of ideologues untainted by Washington.

The Club is a familiar factor in GOP primaries, known for leveraging its roster of big-dollar donors to lavish cash on antitax challengers. The other outfits are newer, smaller players who are gaining renown for their penchant for picking fights with party stalwarts. But they are tapping into a wellspring of grassroots anger toward the GOP elite to soak up online dollars. “The Establishment is the Establishment because it controls the money,” says the Senate Conservatives Fund’s Matt Hoskins, who is trying to change that.

The Establishment-vs.–Tea Party showdown has also split GOP donors, some of whom find themselves torn between loyal but imperfect incumbents and newcomers with promise. “Mike Enzi is about as fine a man as you’re going to find. He’s smart, kind, thoughtful, and has been a good Senator not only for Wyoming, but for the United States,” Foster Friess, a wealthy Wyoming investor who bankrolled Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign in 2012, wrote in an e-mail to TIME. Nonetheless, he’s backing Cheney: “I’m a big fan of more youth in our legislative bodies and passing the baton to the next generation of leaders.”

And then there’s Mississippi. “Throughout his over 40 years in Washington, Senator Thad Cochran has done some good things for Mississippi, but he’s also done some bad things,” Club for Growth president Chris Chocola said in a statement that cited, among other apparent apostasies, Cochran’s taste for pork and his votes to raise the debt limit and confirm Democratic judicial appointees.

At the same time, Cochran is a highly popular figure in Mississippi, with a 79% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. And while he boasts the backing of national conservative groups, McDaniel has a chilly relationship with members of the Magnolia State’s political establishment. In November, a survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling put Cochran’s lead at 6 points; analyst Tom Jensen argued the incumbent was in “serious danger” of losing.

The outcomes of these primaries are unlikely to tip the balance of power in the Senate, because they are being fought in some of the nation’s reddest states. But they have the potential to alter the complexion of the Republican caucus if some of the upstarts can unseat more pragmatic incumbents. “2014 is going to be a heck of a primary season,” says Drew Ryun, a top official at the Madison Project. “There are going to be a lot of punches thrown.”

LIKE IN ROME......SENATORS SERVING FOR SO MANY YEARS.......BECOME ......DEADWOOD.....BOTH ON THE DEMOCRAT AND THE REPUBLICAN SIDE......NOW........IT IS TIME FOR THE TRUE CONSERVATIVES....TO DUMP OUT THESE OLD "MUSTACHE PETES".......AND INJECT NEW BLOOD INTO THE PARTY......THEN ....WE CAN WAR ON THE DEMOCRATS

FOR GOD.....FOR COUNTRY.....FOR THE CONSTITUTION.......

JUST LIKE TONY MONTANA (AL PACINO) SAID IN THE MOVIE SCARFACE.....THOSE COMMUNISTS (DEMOCRATS).....THEY TELL YOU WHAT TO DO.....

The Senate hasn't been as poisoned by the Tea Party and is consequently more functional than the House. It would be a disaster for our country if both chambers are as goofy and destructive as the House. And it's a long time between voting a Senator out, which increases the damage.

Over Thanksgiving I had a nice opportunity to talk politics with my brother in law. He's among the thousands who would be delighted to vote Republican except for that little insanity problem they have to work through.

One of the problems with having ridiculous amounts of money is that it's actually a challenge to find ways to spend it fast enough. Hence 'Superyachts" and 'The Club For Growth" The object of the game has nothing to do with guiding policy. It's all about trying to feel powerful by throwing money around.

Bow out? Why should he want to bow out when its becoming all the rage to stay in office, until you die on the House floor, or until you're so senile you show up in caucus in Depends.

The American Imperial Congress is now almost as the same as the Roman Senate, once elected you are there for life. Don't believe for one minute that these people aren't addicted to the power that they have upsuped from the American people for their own ego and greed. God help us if they have to let in someone new, with different viewpoints every so often. It's true their are no term limits, but there is also no reason that our representatives have to keep their positions for a lifetime.

The Tea Party has cost the GOP several senate seats over the last 5 years. As a liberal, I disagree strongly with the goals of the Tea party. OTOH, the civil war between the establishment GOP and the Tea Party has been a godsend for my party.

The more publicity the better. Everyone needs to know that the GOP is controlled by it's platform and the Tea Party is that platform. If Liz Cheney wins in Wyoming, it should be a wake-up call for the nation. A nightmare wake-up call. A "youthful" fresh face, she isn't. She's her dad. A nightmare.

Let them shoot themselves in the foot trying to get religious fanatics in power , I no longer vote republican .And if I can convince my family and friends not to vote for them I will >My family and friends know i supported republicans over the years , They are still shocked that I stopped voting .I tell them W cured me LOL

Anyone who would vote for a Dem, because of a TEA Party candidate, is to stupid to be allowed to vote or they are actually a democrat who votes for the worst possible Republican candidate just to screww the Republicans.

@mantisdragon91 Notice the direct denial of reality. I describe a real person who happens to have had a brilliant career as a surgeon and a professor, and all the sudden some online clown knows better than I do what this person thinks.